Named after her grandmother; a case of Rosmarinus

by Maarten van der Meer

The patient is an eleven year old girl with
digestive complaints and behaviour problems; she needs laxatives and has
haemorrhoids from pushing too much. She has sour eructations and stomach aches
when she is tense. When she was four, she had discharge from her ears that ran all the way down to her chin.

Emotionally, she is up and down; she has
periods when she is quiet, then periods when she “loses the plot”, and it is
impossible to get a grip on her. She will not listen – it is as though she does
not hear. She has serious problems at school; she cannot concentrate and she
goes from one thing to another without finishing anything. All her schoolwork lies on the table and she
cannot figure out where to start. She begins to cry if her parents ask her to
start doing her homework. She is very restless; she just cannot sit still. She
gets in a panic if something has to be done quickly. She is already tense about
having to do a talk at school in three months time. She is very emotional; she
is still upset about the death of her grandmother three years ago. She can
become very angry; first she broods, then becomes very restless and can start
fights, then she explodes, stamping her feet (DD Lamiaceae, Compositae).

Mother: “The pregnancy and birth went well,
I just had some hypertension. As a baby, she was sweet and lovely. She only
cried if you rode her backwards in a buggy. When her sister was born, it was a
difficult time, with many hospital admissions, and her grandmother became sick,
too. She was put on the sideline and felt like she was left in a corner by
herself (Lamiaceae). After that, she started to become sick and since then she
has no middle ground; she is either full on or in a complete ‘standstill’.”

Often, her parents have to get firm with her.
She wants to do everything too perfectly, which does not work out, and then she
says “I can’t do it!” If something does
not go well for her, a task or a game, she stamps her feet and shouts so much
that it frightens her sister. She sleeps well but moves a lot and talks in her
sleep (Lamiaceae). She is afraid of storms and gets into a panic. She is not
shy at all and tells everything easily. She knows everything precisely and
knows where to find things. She has no friends and is never asked to come to parties:
“You are too busy, we don’t want you.”

She has been named after her grandmother,
who died when she was a toddler. She knows everything about her granny; she
still has her cuddly toy. She often talks as though she is looking into the
past, as though she is bringing an old situation to mind and describing it
accurately. In doing so, she is very confident about what she is telling. She
does so in an exaggerated “don’t contradict me” manner, using great inflection
in her voice, while a tone of reproach rings through. Meanwhile, her mother
sits there looking tired, as though she has been through all these battles and
heard all of this many times before.

AnalysisCharacteristics of Lamiaceae in this case:Explosive reactions. Not belonging to the group. Jumping movements, restless,
rolling the eyes. She puts her mother to the test and looks to see if she is
being caught out. She keeps an eye on her mother to see if there is enough
attention, talks with a lot of emotion, and is reproachful in her anger, as
though she has been misunderstood. One can see her thinking, the building of
the tension in her body, rising up on
the chair and raising her voice. She enjoys being able to congratulate herself
on being right. She has big eyes and she tries to make contact eye contact. On
the other hand, she can be introvert but then her eyes are even more lively.

Due to the many characteristics and the
atmosphere of Lamiaceae in her case, a
remedy was sought within this group. She has been named after her grandmother
and has a special bond with her: when
being named after a grandparent plays a great role in a case, it is an
additional indication for the remedy Rosmarinus. As we know from our herbal
lore: “Rosemary is for remembering.” In homeopathy, it is one of our
“forgotten” remedies! It fits in stage 6: “achieving, proving”.

After the remedy, it went well for her,
especially at school. She was no longer chaotic or panicky, she just went about
her work. After a week, she developed a fever and had a stomach ache, as in the
past, but then has had no more complaints with her digestion. She now goes to the
toilet without the help of laxatives. She plays well and does not have fits of
anger or arguments; she has had a lovely vacation. At home, she is much calmer:
“a different child”. After a month, she had a rash next to her nose and some
dark yellow coating at the base of her tongue. During the following year, she
had a short relapse of her behaviour at school and then she was fine. She has had no more abdominal
complaints over the last three years.